Marketing Plan Analysis and Critique

This assignment requires an in-depth analysis and critique of a provided marketing plan. Students need to examine various aspects like target market, promotional strategies, competitive analysis, and overall effectiveness. The analysis should identify the plan's strengths and weaknesses, offering constructive criticism and recommendations for improvement. The document uses examples from real-world cases, such as easyJet, to illustrate key marketing concepts.

Marketing Planning
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
a) Marketing planning .................................................................................................................3
b) Techniques for organization auditing and for evaluation of external factors..........................4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
a) Challenges and barriers that consultant encounter during their marketing planning..............6
b) Possible solutions and activities for overcoming the challenges.............................................7
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................8
a) Formulate a marketing plan ....................................................................................................8
b) Pricing policy for the marketing plan ...................................................................................10
c) Why marketing planning is essential for strategic planning..................................................11
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................12
a) Importance of ethical marketing............................................................................................12
b) Ethical issues in consumer industry.......................................................................................13
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15
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INTRODUCTION
Marketing is defined as series of activities that mainly focuses on promoting and
marketing the products and services of the business organization (Ayub and et.al., 2013).
Therefore, it is essential for business to concentrate on devising plan the focuses on describing
the current position of business and the future position that they want to achieve. The key aim of
marketing plan is to formulate steps that is taken by the organization in order to accomplish the
stated objectives and goals. Moreover, there are different marketing agencies within the external
environment that renders marketing services and activities on behalf of the company. The
marketing plan basically covers following sections that is situational analysis of the market,
forecasting sales and profits related with their products and services Presently, the report focuses
on compiling the marketing audits for the company as it plays significant role for the
organization to plan their futures marketing activities. On the other hand, report will also focus
on different barriers as well as challenges that are encountered while enabling the marketing
planning for the organization. Thus, the marketing plan that is being devised will clarify the
characteristics and attributes of organization that differentiates them from their rival companies.
TASK 1
a) Marketing planning
In order to attain position in the competitive market scenario and enhances the
profitability of the organization it is essential for them to create and devise effective marketing
plan. As per the view of Grifoni D'Andrea and Ferri (2013) the main aim of marketing plan is to
focus on different actions that will support the enterprise in attaining the goals and objectives of
the firm (Grifoni, D'Andrea and Ferri, 2013). For instance, if the leading supermarket chain
Tesco devise marketing plan with the strategy to increase their market share with the 25%. Thus,
the marketing plan would outline the various goals that would support them in enhancing their
market share with the 25%. Furthermore, the marketing also determine the various business
strategies as well as marketing mix strategies in order to target the large mass of audiences.
Two recent trends and perspectives in the practice of modern marketing planning
In the contemporary and digital marketing era, there are recent trends sand perspectives
in the practice of modern marketing planning that would support the enterprise in marketing their
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products and services in the market (Westwood, 2013). The two recent perspectives in modern
marketing planning includes-1. Retention of customers: Customer retention is also consider as key trend in the
marketing planning as organization plan their activities for the customers so that they
may influence them to purchase their products. Organization mainly focuses to retain
their customers through offering them low cost products or offering them through
enabling effective sales promotion in order to attract their customers.2. Customer satisfaction: In order to ensure modern marketing planning it is essential for
organization to more emphasis on the service and product quality and value so that they
can easily satisfy their customers (Raman, Mantrala and Tang, 2012). In the present
scenario, customers place greater weight that engage in purchasing products as per their
value, convenience and quality. Thus, customer satisfaction is consider as an essential
trend sand perspective that need to be ensure by the organization while devising
marketing plan.
Two capabilities in companies
In order to plan of their future marketing activities it is essential for the organization to
focus on the capabilities within the companies that would assist them in successfully
implementing the marketing plan (Mishra and et.al., 2013). The capabilities within the
companies include-1. Effective resources- The key capability within the company that is important for
organization is effective resources that is human resource, financial or technological
resources etc. that effectually support the organization in planning of their future
marketing activities. With the effective resource organization can easily bring their
products and services within the market faster than their rival companies.
2. Reputation of firms- Another capabilities that is important for the organization for
planning their future marketing activities include reputation of the firm in the industry
(Chernev, 2015). For example, EasyJet have reputation as they serve low cost air ticket to
their passengers that enhances their performance and reputation of firm in the aviation
industry.
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b) Techniques for organization auditing and for evaluation of external factors
There are different techniques for organizational audit and for evaluation of external
factors that is being used by the organization so that they can easily enable future marketing
activities of their services. The significance of using organizational audit techniques and
measuring the external factors is to assess their capabilities and competencies to succeed among
the rival companies within airline industry (Cronin-Gilmore, 2012). EasyJet one of the leading
European low cost budget airline within the UK must focus on SWOT analysis technique for
organizational audit that support them to emphasize on their capabilities and resources. The
SWOT Analysis of EasyJet is as follows-
Strengths-
1. The key strength of Easyjet is that airline company has established an effective brand
image within the UK as the leading company has renders low cost airline services to their
customers.
2. Another strength of the airline company include that it offers no frill services to their
customers thus, it results in reducing the overall cost (easyJet. 2016).
3. The company has maintained its position in Low Cost Carrier Segment (LCC) that
outcome in enhances their brand image and reputation within the Europe.
4. Another strength of Easyjet is that airline company introduces e-tailing that support the
airline in overcoming the additional costs related with the intermediaries and other
distribution network (Usui, 2008).5. Another strength of airline company is that year by year the sales is growing at the faster
rate that results in strengthening the financial performance of the company in the
European market.
Weaknesses-
1. Weakness of Easyjet airline is that the company deals in serving low cost services in
regards with the premium airline that is British Airways. But the other airlines such as
Ryanair gives tough competition to Easyjet through offering much low cost services to
their passengers.2. Another weakness is the taxes and extra charges that is imposed by the UK government
that is mainly due to letting down the operating margin (Morgan, 2012).
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Threats-
1. Key threat for the Easyjet is increasing charges of airport results in creating threat for the
other airline to hold their plane within Europe.
2. The changing aviation rule and regulations of the government act as major threat for
Easyjet as it results in sinceasing the charges of airport.
3. Fluctuating prices of oil and fuel prices also act as the key threat for Easyjet.
Opportunities-
1. With the help of attaining effective marketing activities Easyjet airline can easily
maximize their revenue and profit margin (Andreasen and Kotler, 2008).
2. Furthermore, another opportunity that is available for the Easyjet include expanding their
airline services in the BRICS nation that would further support in enhancing their market
share.
TASK 2
a) Challenges and barriers that consultant encounter during their marketing planning
Theorist Malcolm McDonald has suggested various barriers as well as challenges that are
imposed onto marketing planners. These barriers as well as challenges are mainly encounter on
the daily basis while enabling marketing planning for the products and services of the
organization (Siomkos and Vrechopoulos, 2012). The major barriers to marketing plans include
confusion among the tactics and strategy, organizational barriers, lack of in-depth analysis,
change in the governmental policies, capital requirement etc. While devising the marketing plan
for Easyjet marketing consultant basically focuses on the key barriers that is- Organizational barriers: The common barrier that marketing consultant encounter
during the marketing plan of Easyjet include organizational barriers that mainly focuses
on miscommunication among the staff and employees of the airline regarding the
marketing activities (Wood, 2013). Furthermore, organizational barriers that arises during
the marketing planning also include improper employee engagement within the airline
that obviate innovation in the services of airline. Lack of detailed analysis: Another barrier that is being encountered by the marketing
consultant during marketing planning include lack of detailed analysis related with the
company's past performance and future requirement (Wood, 2008). Therefore, marketing
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consultant must have detailed analysis of company information and their fleet services
that are providing to their passengers. Lack of knowledge and skills: During the marketing planing of Easyjet marketing
consultant also focus on the challenges related with the lack of proper knowledge and
skills related with the marketing. Due to which they can't able to segment the market of
Easyjet and thus further impact other elements of marketing mix.
 Hostile corporate culture: Another barrier to the marketing plans is due to hostile culture
of Easyjet. With the ineffective corporate culture employees and staff within the
organization will not able to render the required services within the organization that
impact the overall activities of marketing plan (Wrenn and Mansfield, 2014).
Thus, all the above barriers and challenges will make it difficult for Easyjet to carry out
their effective marketing planning within the airline industry.
b) Possible solutions and activities for overcoming the challenges
There are certain activities as well as possible solution that will support the Easyjet
company in overcoming the challenges and barriers in their operation that is- Organizational barrier- In order to overcome the organizational barriers thee are
different solution that must be used by Easyjet include implementing proper
communication system within the organization so that marketing consultant can easily
communicate with their staff and customers to determine their needs and requirement
(Greenley, Hooley and Saunders, 2004). In addition to this, the management of Easyjet
focus on communicating with their passengers who prefer their airline regarding the
problems and issues that they face from the staff. Lack of detailed analysis- marketing consultant also face barriers related with lack of
detailed analysis that hamper them in devising the marketing plan for Easyjet. Thus, to
overcome this barrier it is essential for them to focus on conducting the market research
as as well as organizational audit that will support the consultant in attaining the required
information that assist them in enabling the marketing plan for Easyjet (Coallier, 2012). Lack of knowledge and skills- Marketing consultant for Easyjet also encounter with the
challenge related with the lack or improper knowledge and skills related with the
activities within the marketing plan. In order to overcome the challenge marketing
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consultant must have adequate knowledge regarding segmentation, targeting and
positioning that will support them further to create an effective marketing plan.
Furthermore, training can also be provided to the staff in order to enhance the knowledge
and skills related with the marketing activities (Domegan, 2010).
 Hostile corporate culture: In order to overcome the barrier of hostile corporate culture it
is essential for Easyjet to focus on providing effective and collaborative environment to
the marketing consultant as well as staff so that they can easily devise effective marketing
plan for the Easyjet airline.
TASK 3
a) Formulate a marketing plan
In order to accomplish the goals and objectives of marketing it is essential for
organization to focus on formulating an effective marketing plan (Masterson and Pickton, 2010).
Marketing plan basically focuses on the different activities that will support them in attaining the
marketing goals and objectives in the specific time period. The marketing plan for Easyjet is as
follows-
Marketing plan sections Minimum requirements
1. Description of products
and services
Easyjet British low cost airline that provide carrier facilities and
services to the passengers over 700 routes in 32 different
countries. The airline also provide economy as well as business
class services to their passengers. Furthermore, the airline also
provide different services according the requirement and needs of
different segment customers.
2. Competitors analysis The main competitors of Easyjet include British Airways and
Ryanair. The strength of both the competitors are as follows-
Ryanair:
 Strong player in the low cost segment.
 The airline company also have 300 aircraft that makes
largest airline carriers (Pagla and Brennan, 2014).
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British Airways:
 Strong brand presence in the global market across 6
continents.
 Airline also possess strong hub in UK region.
3. Marketing Mix elements 1. Product: The Products/services that is offered by Easyjet
is cheapest air fare with different services like free meal
and luggage services etc. The services offered by the
company is innovative and must target the low segment
customers.
2. Price: Easyjet mainly set the lower price for their airline
services as the company had leading position in LCC.
Skimming pricing policy will be suitable for Easyjet.
3. Promotion: For promoting the services of low cost air
services company must focus on using effective
promotional techniques that is sales promotion as
promotion through advertisement (Blankson and Kalafatis,
2007).
4. Place: Last element within the marketing mix include
place for rendering the services Easyjet must focus on
their stores or online sities through which customers or
passengers can easily select and book their ticket.
4. Target market  In order to render the services Easyjet mainly target low
segment customers and passengers.
 Furthermore, Easyjet will also target the passengers and
traveller who constantly uses the airline services for
travelling or business purpose.
5. Segmentation techniques The marketing plan also focus on the segmentation techniques
that is Easyjet focus on targeting two segment customers that is-
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Demographic-
Under demographic segment Easyjet would target all the income
customers by providing them different air services for meeting
their leisure and luxurious needs.
Psychographic-
Easyjet would also segment their market on the basis of
Psychographic characteristic that is by targeting the specific class
group customers. For instance; low class group want low cost
services while travelling within the Europe region thus, Easyjet
would prefer setting low price such class customers.
6. Human resource plan In order to successfully implement the marketing plan in Easyjet
they requires highly qualified and knowledgeable personnel that
easily implement the marketing plan (Cooper, 2010).
7. Brief Budgeting Marketing consultant must keep adequate financial budget for
implementing the marketing plan so that large customers and
travellers get attracted towards the services and products of
Easyjet. The company should also keep adequate budget for
marketing team so that they can advertise and promote the low
cost services in the European market (Cohen, 2005).
8. Implementation Timeline 1. Firstly Easyjet will introduce the low cost services that
they are providing to their passengers through digital
media.
2. Easyjet will also introduce their low cost service on the
social media sites as well as on their official webpage.
3. Then the airline will renders services in the market among
their customers and passengers.
4. The last step include evaluation of the services that they
are accepted by the customers or not.
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9. Evaluation Measures 1. In order to evaluate the success of marketing plan and their
success Easyjet airline must focuses on taking feedback
and responses from the customers and passengers who has
use their services. With the help of feedback Easyjet
would easily get the reaction of their services (Kapur,
2009).
2. Furthermore, to gauge the success and failure of marketing
plan Easyjet must also focus on surveying technique to
have response regarding their services.
b) Pricing policy for the marketing plan
For the formulated marketing plan of Easyjet the selected pricing policy include
penetration pricing policy. Penetration pricing policy refers to the pricing strategies that is
suitable when the services that are provided by the airline are new in the market (Bowman and
Gatignon, 2010). Easyjet while setting price of their airline fare and services penetration pricing
policy is consider as an effective strategy that mainly focuses on attracting and targeting the
customers. For the marketing plan of the airline the penetration pricing plays significant role as it
enables the faster growth of the airline company in the European region. Easyjet offer the
services at relative low price thus it attract customers to use their services as compare to the
services that are offered by higher priced competitors (Chaffey, Smith and Smith, 2012). On the
other hand, penetration pricing policy in the marketing plan also benefit the company in targeting
the broader market area as in the contemporary scenario, passengers focuses on selecting the low
cost services over the high price services.
In addition to this, using penetration pricing policy will also support the Easyjet in
attaining the economic advantage as through offering the low cost airline services to passengers
it results in increasing the ratio of sales thus, it results in attaining the economic advantage
among their competitors and rival companies (Ayub and et.al., 2013). Furthermore, it also enable
Easyjet in earning the higher profit ratio at the low prices of their services that they offer to the
customers and passengers of European region.
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c) Why marketing planning is essential for strategic planning
In the strategic planning of Easyjet the marketing plan plays significant role in capturing
the higher market share and delivering the new services to the customers as well as passengers.
The strategic plan mainly focuses on defining the actions and activities that will support the
organization in attaining the goals and objectives (Grifoni, D'Andrea and Ferri, 2013). Thus, it
include marketing planning that will further support Easyjet in enabling the strategic plan to
render services in order to achieve the goals and objectives. In addition to this, there are 3
advantages of marketing plan for Easyjet that is-
1. The marketing plan is advantageous for Easyjet as it focuses on enabling the proper
marketing and promotion of their services so that it may achieve the stated objectives and
goals of the organization. Furthermore, marketing planning within Easyjet also support
them in attaining the overall marketing objectives.
2. Another benefit of marketing plan to the Easyjet include that it support the airline
company in tapping the opportunities that are present within the market (Westwood,
2013). With the help of conducting the market research for creating marketing plan it will
support the organization in assessing their current position as well as information and
strategies of their competitors like British Airways, Ryanair etc. so that they can improve
their market area by tapping the opportunities in the aviation industry.
3. Marketing plan also plays advantageous role for Easyjet as it support the organization to
bind all the activities and action of the organization so that they can easily accomplish the
goals and objectives (Raman, Mantrala and Tang, 2012). The effective marketing plan
will support the organization in aligning their problem, objectives, strategies, tactics in
such a manner that it may contribute in attaining the marketing objectives.
Furthermore, there are three factors in order to make sure that company has achieved
implementation of marketing plan are enumerated as follows-
1. Satisfaction among customers- With the help of measuring satisfaction level of customers
and passengers Easyjet can easily measure the effectiveness of implemented marketing
plan (Mishra and et.al., 2013). The key factor for which Easyjet renders low cost services
it the customers. If the customers are satisfied by the services and product of airline then
in future they will repeat their activity. On the other hand, if passengers or customers are
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not satisfied with their services they will improvise their services according to the need
and preferences of customers.
2. Customer responses- With the help of taking responses or feedback from the customers
and passengers that uses airline services is consider as key factor that ensure successful
implementation of formulated marketing plan (Chernev, 2015). With the help of taking
survey or direct feedback from the customer Easyjet would determine the existing gap
among their services so that in future they will improvise their services accordant with
the need and requirement of customers.
TASK 4
a) Importance of ethical marketing
Ethical marketing is consider as an essential aspect of marketing that mainly focuses on
the value that marketing efforts that are provided by the company must be ethical, loyal and fair
in terms of promoting and advertising their products and services (Cronin-Gilmore, 2012).
Furthermore, the organization also use the ethical marketing practices in order to develop sense
of honesty and trust among their different stakeholders group.
The significance of ethical marketing is as follows- Meeting the basic requirement of customers- The foremost significance of ethical
marketing include satisfying and meeting the basic requirement of customers (Morgan,
2012). While purchasing the services or product customers wants that company practices
must be fair and ethical enough so that it meet their requirement.
 Building long-term relationship- Another significant aspect of ethical marketing include
that it support the organization in building loyalty among the customers that further assist
in building long terms relationship with other stakeholders and clients. Furthermore, the
ethical marketing activities by the organization also support them to survive in the long
run as it assist in building brand image in the market.
During the marketing planning there are several ethical issues that are faced by Easyjet
airlines that is related with commercial fraud (Usui, 2008). With the increasing e-transaction
customers often prefer to book their airline services and ticket via online platform that sometime
results in enabling commercial fraud. The customers or passengers also face ethical issues related
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with online privacy that it the online transaction has being consider as the key threat for the
business organization that impact their overall image of airline in the European market.
b) Ethical issues in consumer industry
Ethical issues is defined as problem that enable what is right and wrong for the
organization. Ethical issues in the consumer industry will negatively impact or affect the
organization image in the industry that is it results in negative brand image, negative word of
mouth publicity as well as legal consequences etc. that overall impact the performance of
organization (Ethical consumer issues. 2015). Thus, it is essential for the organization within the
consumer industry to avoid the ethical issues by focusing ethical practices and activities to
survive in the market. In order to enhance the reputation of firm, increases the performance of
organization, avoiding legal problem, maintaining customer loyalty, retaining the customers etc.
ethical practices is must for the organization. For example, ethical issue that is being faced by
Ryanair airline as the airline company engaged in the ethical issues related with charging
additional value from the passenger in the name of boarding pass and other ancillary services.
Thus, this unethical practices has affected the overall image of airline within the aviation
industry.
CONCLUSION
From the aforementioned report it has been summarizes that in order to render new
services or existing services in the market it is essential for the organization to focus on creating
marketing plan. Thus, creating marketing plan is consider as vital for the organization in order to
enhance the market share, brand reputation or profitability ratio. Furthermore, the report has also
focused on formulating the effective marketing plan for Easyjet to capture or attract the new
target customers.
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REFERENCES
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